Albia, IA Two Trucks And Auto Crash, Sep 1947

Albia (AP) - Five persons were killed in a collision involving an automobile and two trucks loaded with hogs on U.S. Highway No. 34, two miles east of here late Thursday night.
"It was the worst mess I ever saw," Sheriff John W. Goodwin said.
The dead were identified by Coroner Bart Downs as:
BOB MAY, 25, and LETHA CARTER (age unavailable), both of Albia;
HENRY HOAGE, JR., 29, and THOMAS J. LEE, 39, both of Fairfield;
RALPH L. HECK, 26, of Webster City.
Goodwin said the car, driven by MAY, was traveling west when it met a string of three trucks, loaded with hogs, traveling from Chariton to Ottumwa.
The MAY car, in which all of the victims were riding, sideswiped the second of the three trucks the sheriff said, and crashed into the last truck, driven by John Foglesong of Chariton.
"I think the MAY automobile must have been traveling very fast," the sheriff said.

Hogs Killed, Scattered.
The Foglesong truck was badly damaged, but Foglesong escaped with only minor injuries the sheriff reported. Five head of hogs were killed, he said, and the other animals scattered along the highway.
It was the second accident this year in which five persons were killed. Last February 2 five persons died in a auto-train collision in a blizzard at Aplington.
The MAY car spun into a highway guard-rail after striking the Foglesong truck, the sheriff reported. Bodies of three occupants of the automobile were thrown clear, and two were found entangled in the wreckage of the car, the sheriff said.

Plan Saturday Inquest.
Coroner Downs identified the driver of the truck which was sideswiped by the MAY automobile as Charles Graves of Chariton. He said the third truck was driven by Richard Robinson, also of Chariton.
All of the trucks were owned by L. L. Lugar of Chariton, the coroner said.
An inquest is planned for tomorrow afternoon, Downs reported.